Judge, 1909-12-11 · page 12 of 16
Judge — December 11, 1909 — page 12: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page satirizes early 1900s theater marketing practices, specifically the absurd "souvenir giveaway" competitions between venues. Theater managers, desperate to attract audiences (particularly women and matinée-goers), offered increasingly ridiculous premiums: lemon drops, fried oysters, dill pickles, hair tonic, marshmallows, and even diamond tiaras. Judge's humor targets two things: first, the desperation of theater owners willing to debase legitimate dramatic productions (like *Joan of Arc* or *King Lear*) with carnival-like gimmicks; second, the implication that audiences—especially women—could be lured from household duties with cheap prizes rather than artistic merit. The cartoons supplement this critique with jokes about suffragettes and gender relations, typical of Judge's satirical approach. The satire works because it exposes how commercial theater prioritized spectacle and consumer goods over dramatic substance.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
waAPerensen DRAMATIC NOTES. OT FAR from the town of tle city that as ‘* Boston" named on the map N in odd name, but a m: lem, ' good friends the managers putting forth | Mass., is a rather attractive lit- such announcements as these: The Umpire Theater—John Drew, in ive revival of ‘Coriolanus.” not uneuphonious; and in this city there Lemon gumdrops to every purchaser of appear, to judge from its local papers, to be several theaters. One of these, in advertising a massive production of the drama of ‘Joan of Arc," announces that Souvenir chocolate bon-bons will be given to every patron at Monday an orchestra seat at Thursday matinée. Pollack’s Theater—Marie Dressler will open at Pollack’s on Monday night in an elaborate production of ‘The Lady of Lyons.” At Wednesday morning performances a souvenir fried oyster MY GIRL, She asked what kind did 1 prefer, Which sent my head awhirl. I answered, as I peeped at her, ** She's called the Daler Girl 1" matinées."” This is certainly a naive announcement and well calculated to serve potently as a lure from the duties of wash day, and we shall expect ere long to see the plan adopted in extenso all over the country, especially if the box-office receipts for the Monday matinées of the great French heroine and saint turn out to be large. No dcubt in time we shall find the New York theaters following suit and our| will be presented to every maiden lady over thirty present. The Hyperion Theater—Mr. Edward Foy will open his season at the Hyperion Theater next Tuesday in a specially edited version of ‘King Lear,” with incidental music by George M. Cohan. The premiere will be rendered memora- ble by the presentation to every member of the audience of a souvenir dill pickle wrapped in satinette, | Tabasco announces a spectacular revival FIRST—THE CAUSE AF Said a sufragette epeaker named Phipps, As cheers fel wor from her list ner's lips, are all right, But I think that you might Be more stylish, and leave off the ‘ hips. The Frailty Theater—The seven hun- dred and fiftieth performance of ‘Dot- tie, the Chorus Girl,”’ will take place at the Frailty next Thursday evening. Among other souvenir prizes the man- agement promises a bottle of the cele- brated hair tonic, Danderdeath, to every occupant of a front-row seat. The Tabasco Theater — Mr. David of **Romeo and Juliet’ for next Mon- day night, with Mr. Tom Wise as Romeo to the Juliet of Miss Eva Davenport. | A specially attractive feature of the! coming season will be the presentation to all who attend the Friday matinées of a souvenir box of soda mint tablets. Flammerstein’s Opera House — Al- though thousands are nightly turned away at the Flammerstein Opera House performances of Miss Mary Garden, the| management has decided to make these evenings more attractive by presenting all the ladies in the audience with sou- venir mershmallows, while every gen- tleman present will receive a small package of headache wafers. The Gastropolitan—Mr. Caruso's dé but next Wednesday evening will be signalized at the Gastropolitan Opera House by the presentation to every oc cupant of a grand tier box of a diamond tiara, while those in the top gallery will receive as a souvenir of this memorable occasion a pound of peanut brittle ands lady finger. MoRACE Lovo casTr. A TOAST. N THE Game of Life May your Woes, Sorrows, and Troubles Check the Bet; May Good Times, Good Cheer and Prosperity, Play the Limit, and Joy, Happiness, and Success Win the Pot. HIS TASTE VS. HERS. Madam—‘*1 am 80 fond of Browo- ing!" Adam—'' Then why not put a little more of it on these biscuits?"’ QUITE A DIFFERENCE. NY FOOL can make a woman talk, but it requires a very clever maa to make her listen. POLITICAL CANDIDATES RIGHT’ “RIGHTS.”*